Stable three-dimensional modon soliton in plasmas

Abstract

We derive the nonlinear equations that describe coupled drift waves and ion acoustic waves in a plasma. We show that when the coupling to ion acoustic waves is negligible, the reduced nonlinear equation is a generalization of the Hasegawa-Mima equation to the three-dimensional (3D) case. We find an exact analytical solution of this equation in the form 3D soliton drift wave (3D modon). By numerical simulations we study collisions between the modons and show that the collisions can be fully elastic.